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Skills that Matter the Most for MBA Students – Part I

The quest for quality MBA students is never ending. In the recent past many surveys have been undertaken and they reveal that the Employability of MBA students are at stake. The corporate world has undergone many changes in the recent times in terms of nature of work and process improvisation and technological innovation. The workplace is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and insecurity. The MBA graduates must be tuned to tackle these hurdles.

In India the challenge that Industries face is lack of employability as there is no dearth in supply. Indian B-schools churn out large number of graduates every year, a few are actually employable. A good percentage of management graduates are either not employed i.e. do not get a job or are underemployed i.e. take up a job that is not relevant to their qualifications.

The potential workforce can be classified as ‘Employable, Not so employable and Not Employable’. The first category represents a negligible percentage of people who are capable of getting employed on their own, as they possess required qualifications coupled with talent, skills and attitude. The second category represents those people who can be transformed to become employable with proper training and development. The several reasons for being not so employable could be- poor academic track record, lack of practical knowledge and poor access to the job market etc. The third category represents a major chunk of students who do not possess the skills. They lack basic understanding of skills set expected out of them. The second and third category requires much attention.

The challenge ahead for B-Schools is in transforming the students in second and third category to the first category i.e. employable. As a prelude to address the issues the author proposes to write a series of blogs on various skill sets expected by Industry people from MBA students and how they can focus on enhancing their employability.